Attention!!  Ernst Blofeld may have finally beat his long-time nemesis! The newest James Bond flick has been indefinitely put on hold!

That’s right!  The studio behind 007 – MGM (you know, the one with the yawning lion at the beginning of their movies – hey, you’d be bored too if you had to sit behind a placard being poked in the arse with a sharp stick and roar on cue for a century)…well, anyhow that MGM is in some money trouble.  Big time. So who’s to pay? 

Well, Bond…James Bond.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the latest production has halted due to the fact that MGM (up for grabs) isn’t selling any faster than if McDonald’s put out an experimental McSteak and Kidney Pie.

Now of course, fans of 007 won’t have to worry much I’m sure. This will not be the last of the British spy who’s been making films since 1962.  After all, the last Bond flick was a huge success so its really just a matter of time before another studio buys out the storied franchise – or MGM goes bust and it goes for a damned steal – whichever comes first.

The real tragedy here is that MGM itself is coming to the end of a long and historical run.  I mean, this is the studio that launched such iconic stars as Clark Gable, Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Harlow, Jimmy Stewart, Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford; it brought us such films as 12 Angry Men, Mrs. Miniver, The Mutiny on the Bounty (1935 version), The Wizard of Oz, Doctor Zhivago, Network, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, North by Northwest, Mata Hari and many, many other classics; to see that brand come to a close should be bittersweet at best.

Then again, a closer look at some of MGM’s more recent offerings might suggest this is one book that is best closed and put on the shelf.  After all, I somehow doubt that, outside of this sentence anyway, Hot Tub Time Machine will share the same stratosphere with an MGM golden oldie like Gone with the Wind ever again.

I could be wrong, but I’m just saying.